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By birth and temperament, Joseph F. Smith was destined for prominence. He was of the “royal lineage”—nephew of the Prophet Joseph and son of the Patriarch Hyrum—and his zeal for the Restoration never wavered. Whatever privileges may have accrued to him from his parentage were surpassed in spades by the trials he suffered as a young man. Combined, they produced a complex and very human being.
BEFORE THE BEARD: TRIALS OF THE YOUNG JOSEPH F. S MITH
By Scott G. Kenney
Joseph F. Smith, circa 1858 Joseph F. Smith, circa 1905
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E IS THE MAN WITH THE LONG BEARD WHOSE clasped her arms around his head, turned his pale face we have been looking at for the past two years on face upon her heaving bosom, and then a gushing, H the cover of the 2000–01 Priesthood and Relief plaintive wail burst forth from her lips: “Oh! Hyrum, Society manual. He is Joseph F. Smith, son of Hyrum and Mary Hyrum! Have they shot you, my dear Hyrum—are Fielding Smith, sixth president of the Church (1901–18), and you dead, my dear Hyrum!” She drew him closer and the father of the tenth, Joseph Fielding Smith. He was born in closer to her bosom, kissed his pale lips and face, put Far West, Missouri, two weeks after the Haun’s Mill massacre, her hands on his brow and brushed back his hair. Her and he died in Salt Lake City eight days after the end of World grief seemed to War I. consume her, and President Smith’s accomplishments are remarkable. He hus- she lost all power of “They banded five large families and steered Mormonism into a safe utterance. and uncontested position in American culture He defined the Her two daugh- turned to nature of Mormonism sans theocracy, cooperatives, and ters and two young polygamy. He is truly the father of modern Mormonism. children clung, one But his many triumphs cannot be appreciated without un- some around her another derstanding in like measure the trials and inner struggles he neck and some to endured. I hope this portrayal will be a step toward an honest her body, falling alternately and empathetic portrait of the young Joseph F. Smith, of the prostrate upon the man before the beard. corpse, and shriek- crying, ing in the wildness “My “. . . stupified with horror” of their wordless grief.3 husband, ARLY IN THE morning, five-year-old Joseph heard tap- At 7 the next morning, ping at his mother’s bedroom window, then a man’s new coffins lined with fine my husband E voice from outside. His father was dead. Uncle Joseph, white linen and covered in too.” “My too. A mob had rushed the jail and shot them. Mary screamed black velvet were ready. The in anguished denial, then began to sob uncontrollably. bodies were laid inside, and father in As word spread, friends and relatives began to call—among protective squares of glass them, B. W. Richmond, a non-Mormon staying at the Mansion covered the faces. Then the blood.” House.1 He described the scene: coffins were put into pine “And my [Mary] had gathered her . . . children into the sitting boxes and set on tables for room and the youngest about four years old sat on her the public viewing.4 father is lap. The poor and disabled that fed at the table of her In late June, on the banks husband, had come in and formed a group of about of the Mississippi River, the dead too,” twenty about the room. They were all sobbing and fog lifts early, and tempera- and weeping, each expressing his grief in his own peculiar tures rise rapidly. In the way. Mrs. Smith seemed stupified with horror. Mansion House, decom- “My Sons, Joseph recalled, “It was a misty, foggy morning. Everything posing flesh generated pu- looked dark and gloomy and dismal.”2 trid gases, and the corpses my sons.” About three in the afternoon, two wagons bearing the mar- swelled. By noon, Hyrum’s tyrs reached the outskirts of town. Eight to ten thousand dis- face was nearly unrecognizable, his neck and face forming one traught mourners lined the streets. When the wagons reached bloated mass. Although the gunshot wounds had been filled the Mansion House, the rough pine coffins were unloaded and with cotton, blood and other fluids oozed out, trickling down carried into the dining room. The families were asked to wait to the floor and puddling across the room. outside until the bodies could be cleaned. When they were al- “Kneeling in a pool of the comingling dripping gore of the lowed in, Martyrs on the floor,” Dan Jones wrote, Mary, Emma, several of [Mary] trembled at every step, and nearly fell, but the children in their care, and Lucy turned to one another al- reached her husband’s body, kneeling down by him, ternately crying, “‘My husband, my husband too.’ ‘My father
SCOTT KENNEY is a technical writer and historian STYLE NOTE : Paragraphing has often been added to quo- living in Alpine, Utah. An earlier draft of this article tations; punctuation has been standardized; original spelling was presented at the 1999 Salt Lake Sunstone has been retained except all sentences begin with a capital Symposium (Tape #SL99-325). An expanded ver- letter and names are consistently capitalized. Underlined or sion can be found in the “articles” section of Scott’s all-caps words denoting emphasis are italicized instead. website, www.saintswithouthalos.com. Interlinear additions are enclosed in slashes (/.../).
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in blood.’ ‘And my father is dead too,’ and ‘My son, my sons.’”5 cloud seemed to overshadow Bro. Smith and he asked A mixture of tar, vinegar, and sugar was kept burning on how this man looked upon the deed. Bro. Smith was the stove lest the stench overwhelm the visitors, who, oppressed by a most horrible feeling as he waited for “tracking their feet in the a reply. After a brief pause the man answered, “Just as prophet’s blood” passed I have always looked upon it—that it was a d----d through the apartments “from cold-blooded murder.” The cloud immediately lifted “He found morning till night . . . and in from Bro. Smith and he found that he had his open the house for the live-long day pocket knife grasped in his hand in his pocket and he that he the lament of sorrow was believes that had this man given his approval to that heard.”6 murder of the prophets, he would have immediately had his At 5 P.M., the doors finally struck him to the heart.9 open closed, and the families took their final farewells. Mary lifted “. . . I felt mighty big about it, I tell you” pocket Joseph up to look upon the faces of his father and the FTER THE MARTYRDOM, Hyrum’s widow, Mary knife Prophet, for the last time.7 Fielding, was the sole care-giver and provider. His grasped Peering through the glass, he A oldest child had married four days before the mur- saw faces once so familiar, now ders, but Hyrum’s brother Samuel H. died on July 30. His in his distended and ashen, their jaws pregnant wife, Levira, needed help, so Mary took in three of his tied shut, cotton stuffed into five children.10 It is little wonder that Joseph’s sister Martha hand in the bullet hole at the base of his Ann recalled their mother “seldom smiled,” and getting her to his pocket father’s nose. laugh was “quite a feat.”11 Joseph retained few memo- Emma, Mother Smith, and many of the Smith family re- and he ries of his father, but his moth- mained in Nauvoo; but Mary, her older brother, Joseph er’s lifting him to see Hyrum’s Fielding, and younger sister, Mercy, decided to follow Brigham believes body was one of them. At five, Young. When William, the only surviving Smith brother, that had he could not fully understand learned that Mary had permitted her step-son, John, to join the meaning of death. The an- the vanguard in February, he furiously berated her for siding this man guish in his mother’s voice, the with Young against the rest of the family. Listening upstairs, sight of his father’s and Uncle Joseph “longed for age and maturity in order that he might de- given his Joseph’s barely recognizable fend his helpless mother from such unwarranted and bitter as- approval bodies, the stench—it was no saults.”12 At eight, he felt keenly it was his role to protect his doubt a traumatic day. And not mother and family. to that only on that day, but for many The family left Nauvoo in September 1846, crossing the days following, the sorrow, Mississippi just hours before the cannonading of Nauvoo com- murder of anger, and fear of the entire menced. Then Joseph drove a team three hundred miles to the community reinforced the hor- Winter Quarters. “I never got stuck once and I never tipped rendous nature of his father’s the wagon over, I never broke a tongue or reach or wreched a prophets, murder. How could the experi- wheel,” he crowed. “I got through the journey just as well as ence not have a lasting effect? the old men who drove the teams and I felt mighty big about he would When he was twenty-one, it, I tell you.”13 have im- Joseph returned to Nauvoo for Two horrid winters followed at Winter Quarters. Joseph the first time and recalled how witnessed more than a boy’s share of suffering and death. Six mediately as a young boy, he had hidden hundred men, women, and children died before Mary’s family when strangers came to town, got out in the spring of 1848.14 struck fearing he, too, would be Joseph left a detailed account of the trek west (discussed him to the “taken to prison.”8 below). Suffice it to say for now that the young boy believed It was a sorrowful visit. His driving a heavily loaded wagon for a thousand miles and per- heart.” companions wanted to visit forming all the chores done by the men, except night guard Carthage jail, but it was too duty, demonstrated he was almost a man. much for Joseph. He would In the valley, Mary selected a spot on Mill Creek. Before the wait for them a short distance snows came, there was time only to build a ten by twelve away. As he told the Twelve many years later, while the others shelter, primarily for cooking, but where she also taught were gone, he Joseph to read.15 They lived in the wagons. The winter was met a man who said he had just arrived five minutes cold. Food was in short supply. Bread was rationed. Some too late to see the Smiths killed. Instantly a dark boiled leather for soup. Mary’s family dined on parched corn
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and corn-meal, milk and butter, supplemented with nettle with Joseph’s genealogy back to his paternal grandparents. greens, thistle roots, and sego lily bulbs.16 Next, in rapid succession, he tells of his mother’s conversion In the spring of 1849, Mary moved the family a mile west, and move to Kirtland, her marriage to Hyrum, the massacre at where they began construction of an adobe house, fourteen by Carthage, Winter Quarters, and the trek to Utah. twenty-two, that would house eight persons.17 Crickets de- Chronologically, the next subject would be pioneer life in the stroyed much of the first three years’ crops, but the harvest of Valley and Mary’s death. But Joseph doesn’t go there. Instead, 1851 was successful, and prospects for the Smith family finally he backtracks to early 1839. He reports his mother took him began to improve.18 to Liberty Jail shortly after his birth and discusses how their home in Far West was ransacked and a mattress was thrown “. . . like a comet or fiery meteor” on top of him—he barely es- caped death—events he only N THE SUMMER of 1852, Mary fell ill. She had always could have known from his been small and frail; only her indomitable will had carried mother or, perhaps, Aunt Mercy. “Don’t her through fifteen years of deprivation. But this time it But all that is prelude to a con- I 19 whip her was different. She was taken to Heber C. Kimball’s home. To versation he overheard between prevent their possible infection, the children not allowed to his mother and Harlow Redfield, with visit. Eight weeks later, she died. second counselor in the Provo When Joseph heard the news, Martha Ann recalled, he bishopric and a member of the that!” He passed out.20 He was thirteen. Through the chaos of his short Provo City Council.29 In 1839, life, his mother had been the only stabilizing force. He remem- Redfield had been visiting the turned bered the hardships she had endured and the times he had dis- Smith home when the looters “and was appointed her,21 concluding that no one had rendered her the invaded. Joseph wrote: service she deserved.22 In death, he idealized—if not idol- I well remember when going to ized—Mary as in 1851 or 2 he came to the refined, pure gold of womanhood and mother- Utah, he came to my whip me; hood—wise, intelligent, faithful, and indomitable. . . . mother and endeavored but Her faith in God and the holy gospel was implicit, to explain matters, boundless, sublime. Her patience in trials, her unwa- saying that he endeav- instead of vering fidelity to her husband’s family through all the ored to pick the lock, persecutions and drivings, her endurance in poverty so that the mob should whipping and hardships, and her perfect integrity to every good not break it. However me, I word and work were beyond anything I have ever satisfactory this expla- seen in womankind.23 nation was to himself, licked Hers was a model no mere mortal could ever supplant. my mother could not Joseph later described the year and a half after Mary’s death as swallow it, as she him, “perilous times. . . . I was almost like a comet or fiery meteor, plainly told him. good and without attraction or gravitation to keep me balanced or guide My own opinion is me within reasonable bounds.”24 that bro. Redfield was plenty.” In the winter of 1853–54, schoolmaster D. M. Merrick caught (as he supposed called Joseph’s little sister, Martha Ann, to the front of the class at least) in a tight place, to be disciplined. As she approached, he pulled out a leather as it seems he was at my Fathers house when the mob strap and directed her to hold out her hand. “Don’t whip her came, and knowing that opposition was perilous, and with that!” Joseph suddenly exclaimed. Merrick turned “and would be inadiquate to deter the mob from their pur- was going to whip me; but instead of whipping me, I licked pose, he concluded that a quiet submission, and a him, good and plenty.”25 seeming willingness for the mob to search the house A “good and plenty” licking went beyond purely defensive &c. was the best policy, therefore took a part, as intervention. Nor was this likely an isolated incident. Joseph though he was one of the mob. was expelled from school.26 As one acquaintance discreetly As bro. Redfield died in the church I should like to put it, Joseph was “quick with his temper and not afraid to let think well of him, but this I must say, however pure his fists fly.”27 his motives, my mother would never acknowledge /his explanation/ of the deed.”30 “My temper was beyond boiling . . .” Originally Joseph wrote, “Mother would never acknowl- edge a forgiveness of the deed,” but he then crossed out forgive- N EARLY 1871, Joseph prepared a reminiscence for publi- ness and replaced it with “his explanation.” Forgiveness was cation in the Improvement Era that reveals the depth and not lightly bestowed.31 I persistence of his childhood rage.28 The narrative begins Next, Joseph proceeds to two Winter Quarters incidents in
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which Mary’s intuition/inspiration prevents a band of rustlers in the night through droves of ravenous wolves.” As expected, from stealing her cattle, and nine-year-old Joseph outmaneu- Jane is fine. vers a band of Indians until help arrives. Next, mid-way across Wyoming, he describes the now-fa- Then in the spring of 1848, desperate to get her family out mous blessing of the oxen. Interestingly, however, the crux of of Winter Quarters, Mary presses young and untrained ani- the story as told here is not the power of faith, prayer, or mals into service pulling wagons. It takes three days to get to priesthood, but Lott’s fuming about Mary’s sick oxen, the irony the staging ground at Elk Horn, a prohibitively slow rate of of hers being healed and his dying, and his suspicion that travel. At that point, “a circumstance occurred I shall never Mary had poisoned his animals. forget and have not yet even forgiven.” Captain Cornelius P. One of our best oxen laid down in the yoak as if pois- Lott,32 to whose company they are assigned, examines their ened, and all supposed he would die. Father Lott now wagons and animals, and declares it is blustered about as if the world was about at an end. folly for “Widow Smith” to attempt the Journey, and “There” said he “I told you /you/ would have to be said he, “Go back to Winter Quarters and remain till helped, and that you would be a burden on the com- another year so that pany.” But in this he was mistaken, for after praying you can get assis- for the ox, and pouring oil upon him he got up and For Joseph, tance,33 for if you we drove along only detaining the company a very start out in this short time. But we had not gon far when another fell the trek manner, you will be a down like the first. But with the same treatment he burden on the com- got up, as the other. I believe this was repeated the to Utah pany the whole way, 3rd time, to the astonishment of all who saw and the became a and I will have to chagrin of Father Lott. carry you along or Farther down the trail, one of Mary’s oxen dies of old age; then downward leave you on the three of Lott’s ablest oxen and his best mule die. way.” This was a sore trial to the old man, and a very great spiral into To this disconso- loss, as he was obliged to get help in order to proceed. the hell late harangue Mother I heard him say, “It looks Suspicious that 4 of my best calmly replied, animals should lie down in this manner all at once, of un- “Father Lott, I will and die, and everybody’s cattle but mine escape!” and beat you to the valley insinuated that Somebody had poisened them controllable and will ask no help through Spite, all of which was said in my presence fury and from you either.” At and for my especial benefit, which I perfectly under- this he seemed quite stood, altho’ he did not address himself directly to me. murderous nettled and said Now the climax: sharply, “You can’t get It was well for Father Lott I was only a stripling of 10 rage. there without help, /9/ years of age, and not a man. Even four years latter and the burden will [the year Mary dies], Such an occurrence would have be on me,” and cost the old man dearly, regardless of his age, and per- turned on his heel and went away. haps been a cause of regret to myself. I was then a little boy, and I felt greaved and hurt at My temper was beyond boiling, it was “white hot,” the harsh and disencouraging manner of “Father for I knew his insinuation was directed or aimed at Lott,” and the cold rebuff he gave my mother. my mother. . . . Mary contracts for additional oxen, so when the company At this moment I resolved on revenge for this and rolls out, she is ready. “All went smoothly,” Joseph continues, the many other insults and abuses this old fiend had until they reached the north fork of the Platte where they spot heaped upon my mother, and should most certainly another company of Saints in the distance. It is the company of have carried out my resolution had not death come Jane Wilson’s mother. Jane, “a subject of charity” traveling with timely to my releaf and rid the earth of so vile and de- the family, goes off to join her mother, expecting the two spicable an incumbrance while I was yet a child. groups will camp together that night. Providentially, Lott dies before Joseph is old enough to act But Lott decides to stop at noon and calls everyone to- on his murderous intent, and all ends well.34 gether. “Is all right in the camp?” he calls. All reply affirma- Joseph recalls Lott was also spiteful because Mary would tively. “When Mother spoke he exclaimed, ‘All is right, is it, not allow Joseph to stand guard at night “and performe all the and a poor woman lost!’” Mary “very mildly” explains Jane duties of a man to which she had no objections, and which I “‘has gone to see her mother and is quite safe.’” Enraged, Lott did faithfully in the day time, for I yoked, un-yoked and drove exclaims, “I rebuke you widow Smith, in the name of the Lord! my own team and took my turn of day guard with the men, She is lost and must be sent for at once.” So Joseph’s older step- and was equal to the best, which was more than reason could brother John is sent to overtake the company ahead “travelling demand or than any /other/ child in camp of my age did.”35
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For the Church, the trek to Utah became a spiritual as well legible word] above them, for they are your older as temporal journey—the recapitulation of ancient Israel—ex- Sisters, and it is for them to give council and also for odus, travail in the wilderness, and finally, emergence into the our older Brothers. You be kind to them and do what promised land. For Joseph, it became a downward spiral into they [say], and do not get cross. And study your the hell of uncontrollable fury and murderous rage. I suspect books . . . and think more of Joy in your Hart, than the “white-hot” feelings actually emerged from his mother’s Sorrow in your mind, and keepe it all to your Self, death. As he tried to make sense of it all, perhaps it helped him and tell it to no body, and you Shall be blessed.39 find an outlet for the overwhelming sense of loss and helpless- At the time, Joseph himself was quite “down harted,” but he ness to focus his anger on someone like Cornelius P. Lott who, followed his own counsel and kept it to himself. as Joseph remembered, had so contemptuously sneered at the one now risen to beatification. “. . . and but fiew are exceptionable” That hatred lasted a long time.36 Twenty-three years after the fact, one senses Joseph was indeed furious as he com- IS LETTERS WERE always cheerful, expressing grati- mitted the story to paper. tude to the Lord and his servants, and determination H to fulfill his calling honorably. He worked hard to “. . . tell it to no body” learn Hawaiian, and, ac- cording to President Francis FTER MARY’S DEATH, Joseph was nearly incon- A. Hammond, at April confer- solable. For a year and a half, he ran wild, without ef- ence, he was able to address “I had fective guidance or discipline. He beat up the school- the congregation in the native A 37 rather die master and likely took up drink and tobacco. tongue, “causing all the saints When he was only fifteen and a half, he was called on a to rejoice exceedingly. He has on this Church mission to the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands. His fa- only been here 6 months. The ther’s seventy-four-year-old uncle, Silas Smith, was also called Lord has been with him in get- mission and would be his first companion. They served together in the ting hold of the language. He than to Kula region of Maui, a beautiful setting on the hillside of spoke very feelingly & I was Mount Haleakala. But Joseph missed his friends. The food was rejoiced much to hear his disgrace strange and often scarce. The customs were foreign, and he voice in the native language.” could not understand the language. Other missionaries re- Unfortunately Joseph had “a myself ore ceived mail routinely, but for six months, none came for him. few hard words” with another my calling. Finally a letter arrived from George A. Smith, the first commu- elder the next evening, and nication from home since he had arrived. Joseph replied: Hammond was obliged to give These With Joy and Grattitude I Recieved your Letter. . . . It them “some good hints . . . mead my hart rejoice when I Saw it for It was the first about giving way to their evil are the Letter that I had resieved from the valleys of the passions.”40 Sentiments mountains. You must exkuse all the mistakes. As you But when Hammond was well know, I am A new beginner. I am young and yet transferred to Lanai, Joseph of my have time to Learn. was made president of the After reporting his travels and the welfare of the mission- Maui-Molokai conference. At hart.” aries, Joseph asked that he be remembered in family prayers age sixteen, he was respon- that I may holde out faithful and bair off my calling sible for 1,253 Saints in forty- with honour to myself and the cause in which I am one branches plus three Utah Elders—one of whom suffered ingaged. I had rather die on this mission than to dis- paranoid delusions. grace myself ore my calling. These are the Sentiments It was a challenging assignment. Hawaiian culture was in of my hart. My prairs is that we may holde out faithful shambles. Hawaiians outside of Honolulu lived in filthy to the end, and evetually be cround in the kingdom of squalor. Many were addicted to liquor; and traditional sexual god with those that have gon before us.38 promiscuity brought syphilis to virtually every village. Life on the islands was humbling. After four months, he felt Those who joined the Church were disillusioned when he had learned a great deal. He wrote Martha Ann: priesthood blessings did not save their families in the smallpox I could give you much council, that would be epidemic of 1853. In addition, they had raised funds to pur- benifisial to you as long as you live upon this earth. . . chase a printing press, but when it arrived, President Young di- . Be Sober and prayerful, and . . . never feel down rected it be sent to San Francisco where George Q. Cannon harted but be merry /in your hart/ and p[r]ay[er]ful would use it to print a newspaper.41 By the time Joseph ar- and keeps a prayorful hart and a thoughtful mind and rived, there was little enthusiasm for the Church. the Lord will bless you . . . . only be kind to your A gathering place had been designated at Palawai on Lanai, Sisters and mind what they say to you and never [il- where Saints could be free of corrupting influences. The
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for us to eat. Syphilis and other sexually-trans- “Websters unabridged was very providentially beyond your reach” mitted diseases ran rampant throughout the islands. Like most haoles, including Joseph estimated the extent of his schooling at three years and three months,42 Mormon missionaries, Joseph attributed so as part of a self-education regimen, he would often use large words to build and these conditions to wickedness. “The practice his vocabulary. One of his favorite targets for his philological perambula- fact of it is, their nation is roten, and tions was J. C. Rich. An example from a 27 July 1861 letter to Rich: stink because of, and with their own “Humbly deprecatingly and appologetically imploring your Extreeam le- wickedness, and but fiew are exception- niency and benevolent paliation of my unpardenable inadvertancy in pro- able.”45 crastinating to such an incorrigable extention, my feeble essay to expa- Occasionally, they didn’t seem so ciate in acknowledgement of your eloquential acrafampthical but brief, bad—they could even be enticing. One curt, communication of the 13th inst. I assume . . . .” evening on Maui, “We seen a sight that On a separate occasion, Rich teasingly responded: was worth all other ‘sights’ that I ever Your ‘vocabulary arrangement’ was duly received this morning and if seen. It was composed of 3 native girls nothing interferes with my phrenological developments I
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reported net losses. From July 1855 to October 1857 mission member- “I could have shrunk out of existence . . .” Many of the brethren chew to- ship fell nearly 25%, from 4,200 to bacco, and I have advised them 3,200. Brigham Young decided to to be modest about it. Do not abandon the mission.49 HEN JOSEPH RETURNED take out a whole plug of tobacco Joseph had arrived in the islands a from his mission, he brought in meeting before the eyes of the lonely, contrite, anxious boy. Three W with him two things he prob- congregation, and cut off a long years later, he departed a confident ably never intended to acquire: a love of slice and put it in your mouth, preacher of the gospel. liquor and an addiction to tobacco. to the annoyance of everybody During this period, many faithful around. . . . If you must use to- “. . . they have changed to some- Latter-day Saints drank wine and other bacco, put a small portion in thing stronger . . .” alcoholic beverages. Many men chewed your mouth when no person tobacco, including at least half of his mis- sees you, and be careful that no E REACHED THE Salt Lake sionary companions.51 Joseph picked up one sees you chew it. I do not Valley on 24 February 1859 both habits,52 but tobacco was the bigger charge you with sin. You have and enlisted the next day in problem: the “Word of Wisdom.” Read H 54 the militia—most likely in Orrin From my childhood—for twenty it. Porter Rockwell’s new Mill Creek years and upwards I chewed the Later, when Joseph left on a mission company. He was now also free to filthy weed. I never saw the mo- to England, President Young was still turn to romance. Prior to his mis- ment during the whole time that using tobacco. But Joseph held himself sion, Joseph had taken an interest in I was not inwardly ashamed of it, to a higher standard. Trying to quit nico- Jane Fisher, the sister of one of his insomuch I endeavored to keep tine made him “cross and crabbed,” but old Mill Creek chums. Apparently, he it to myself, using great caution. being unable to quit was infuriating. even proposed to Jane while on his One day I went into the presi- Finally, after more than twenty years of mission but told her she was not to dent’s office. He whispered to use, make the engagement public. When me, I was obliged to whisper I conquered—and now, when I he returned, however, things were back. He smelt my breath, and think of it, I feel ashamed that I different. On 26 June, Jane wrote: started in surprise. “Do you was so weak, and strange to say You said you would be chew tobacco?” I could have the appetite, though still with happy to hear from me, shrunk out of existence, or ani- me and perhaps as strong as every month, and I was vain hilated myself from very shame, ever, it is at my command. It is enough to think you ment and he saw I was ashamed of no longer the master, but a sub- what you said. . . . myself, and pitying me said, dued, conquered enemy ever on Everybody thinks you and I “Keep it to yourself”! When I the alert to revolt, but daily are engaged. Now dont went out I was resolved that I growing weaker and more think yourself insulted and who so hated hypocricy—now faint.55 trample the letter under thoroughly hating myself— Thirteen years later, he spoke of his your feet till you have fin- would conquer my appetite for struggle with alcohol. At an 1883 meeting ished. . . . Joseph I swear by tobacco or know the reason why. of the School of the Prophets, he acknowl- all I hold dear that I never I tried with it in my pocket, but edged “he had used tobacco, and he loved wronged you so much. it was no use. My hand would liquor,” but he had quit and believed Never did such an expres- involuntarily find and put it in anyone who wanted to could do the sion pass my lips. . . . When my mouth, and it seemed when same.56 References to his drinking are not you return, people will find at last it was all gone, and I extensive, nor do they suggest excess. For they were mistaken, and vowed I would not touch again, example, in 1862, his missionary associ- pitty me. For that I do not and all my friends were dead or ates wrote him they were “lonely when care. I scorn their pitty, as I gone on a journey, everybody was you left so we downed the bottle of wine have their scoffs, but you cross and crabbed, including my you forgot when you left.” A few months too would pitty and despise amiable wives and loving chil- later, he was presented with a gift of “3 me for dareing to aspire to dren, and I had no very definite bottles of wine;” in 1873, he received a your affection. . . . But allow purpose in life!53 bottle of champagne and “treated my me to give you the same ad- President Young had told the Saints, folks;” when he left for England the next vice you did me. Do not I have my weakness . . . . [but] I year, he was given a bottle of wine, and marry the hand alone but be will not make my wrong a once there, he was “treated very respect- Sure She has a heart.”50 means of leading others astray. fully to wine and cake.”57 Uncertain of their feelings, Joseph
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and Jane continued to see each other through the summer, fall, deliniate the feelings of my beating heart, in writing. and early winter. Apparently they broke up in December, Still ‘twould be a plesurable taske, Could I but peni- about the time Joseph went to Fillmore as sergeant-at-arms for trate the future, and see therein, the completion and a legislative session. Two months later, Jane’s indignant father fulfillment of my ardent hope, but like the divinity of wrote him: a Cato’s Immortality, “Shadows, Clouds and darkness You have been keeping company with my Daughter hang about it.” I would that it was otherwise, but this ever since your return from your Mishion & from the is not the point. . . . I am aware that our acquaintance testimony before me you solicited her to be your wife has been short, to you, I do not know how pleasant, before you returnd whitch indirectly was granted. I but allow me to say, that since I saw you first the ad- will here state that before the Move south you could miration and respect I first conceived for you have have had my consent & from that time untill two daily grown, till they have changed to something Months ago you stronger and more fervent. . . . Not knowing there- Could have had it fore; the state of your feelings, It becomes a duty that grudgeingley & I owe myself, to simply aske you, cousin how you feel “It is a taske since that time you toward me, what you think of “Cousin Joe,” or to me to could not have it at whether it is agreeable to you or not that I should en- all. I told her at least courage farther my desires, or scese to know or hope, delineate two months ago to or dream of thee, as something nearer, dearer, and not have anything more Chois than just a Cousin and a friend.59 the feelings more to Doo with Six weeks later, on 5 April 1859, Brigham Young married the of my you for it was my two in his office.60 Joseph was twenty, Levira almost seventeen. opinion that she beating would lead a “the throbbings of the heart that loves” Miserable life. . . . heart. . . . I beleive she HE YOUNG COUPLE seemed very much in love Since I saw would have maried when, after barely a year of marriage, Joseph left on a you & Dragd out a T mission to England. “Levira, I think of you all the you first the few miserable years time,” he wrote en route to New York. “I pray for you, and in broken hearted more—. But enough. You know the throbbings of the heart admiration wreatchedness that loves.” He also had a word of counsel: “Remember Vira, and under the tyranical your duties to your God, and to your mother. Do not give way influence jelousy & to too much hilarity and rudeness. Be a woman! Respect age respect I self importance . . . and take good council, though it be from a fool.”61 You have stood Taking counsel was a virtue Joseph had cultivated since he first in the way for the had been sent on a mission. It was a virtue he expected of his conceived last 8 or 9 months wife. Levira tried, but she was by nature an independent- when she could minded woman. She was also fun-loving, which might have for you have Bettered her- been the perfect antidote to Joseph’s serious personality. When self 2 to 1 with out he encouraged her to cultivate sobriety, she teased, “I am get- have daily any trouble but ting so sober that I can hardly know how to take a joke, so you grown.” your covetynes and must not joke me a great deal.”62 To which he replied, “I do jelous disposition admire sobriety in you dear. I admire it in any one.” Then, would not give her speaking more of himself than anyone else, he added: up . . . There is a state of sobriety verging upon melancholy You say your folks are all against you. So much the that I do not like. You must avoid that above all things more you are to be pitied for not haveing a mind of for it will make you disagreeable both to yourself and your own . . . You also state that you seen Brother your friends. . . . I do not want you to get disheartend, kimble [Heber C. Kimball] & he has Counsald you to nor downcast. Keep chearful, yet be sober i.e. not do as you have done.58 wilde!”63 Three days after this rebuke, Joseph began pursuing his When he had been gone four months, Levira rather appre- cousin, Levira. Trying to appear as sophisticated as he possibly hensively mailed him a photo of herself. could, Joseph wrote: I almost fear that you will give me a downright real It is with feelings of true emotion that I attempt to ad- good scolding for daring to be so presumptuous as to dress you a few lines this morning. It is not however do such a thing without being requested so to do. But without embarisment & difidence that I engage in notwithstanding, however, I think I am going through this taske. I say taske because it is a taske to me to a process that is calculated to harden me in time, so
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that I can take a scolding and not hurt my feelings not to write whenever circumstances will permit. I am not the least either, but never from you. No. Five words exactly my own master, as duty is always to me from you either cross or pleasant would have more binding. My desire is to do my duty. . . . You say you weight upon my mind than five times five would do not wish to disturb my mind with your sorrows. . from any other being that lives on the earth. . . And which is most likely to disturb my mind, to You may perhaps think that I don’t mean one word know the wors, and be able to sympathize with you of it, but I do mean every word and a great deal more. and perhaps be able to suggest a remedy, or be It has ever been so. Cross warned of danger and be kept words from you have fell like in ignorance as to where or ice upon my heart, and yet I what it is, or how to meet it, have fained to care nothing and thus be compelled to en- about them. . . . dure the worst fears and sus- I never could keep such a pense? . . . Should we not be smooth face again, no never, one? I have never kept anything and I hope from this time forth from you, that you should and forever I may never do or know. All my thoughts are say anything that will cause yours. Let yours be mine.66 you to disregard my feelings. Then, heightening Joseph’s alarm, There is a long lifetime before came word that Levira was “some better us I hope, and my earnest and but unable to do anything yet.” Brigham constant prayer is that we may had sent a carriage to transport her to live it according to the best of George A.’s home where she could be our knowledge.64 cared for.67 As it turned out, Levira had In the second autumn of Joseph’s ab- fallen ill. In January, Martha Ann wrote sence Levira became depressed. Mail that Levira “has been very low for a long arrived in Salt Lake three times a week, time and she is very low yet but she is but there had been nothing from much better than she has been. . . . She Joseph for six weeks. “I could not en- has been low spirrited some of the dure for one year to come what I have time.”68 Levira also spent five weeks at endured during the past time of your Brigham Young’s home.69 absence from home,” she wrote in exas- On 1 March 1862, he wrote, “You peration. Levira Annette Smith must cheer up, Levira, and learn (if you One look at my poor, pale face have not already) to take things as they and wasted form would con- come, which we cannot control.” He had vince you of that. Oh! Joseph, I “There are but been feeling low himself, and didn’t write would give all I possess in this precious few men often “because I have had no heart to world if I could only see you, be write to anyone scarcely and even now, if clasped to your bosom, hear in this world who you catch my spirit, I fear it will fail to from your lips the comforting enliven you. It takes but little to make words I so much stand in need posess human me sad. I am very sensitive and rather of at this present time, and you hearts and melancholy inclined besides I scarcely would have them for me. I ever have time to sit down, quiet and un- know you would! There are but feelings, and I questioned long enough to follow out a precious few men in this world link or two of thought, say nothing of a who posess human hearts and thank God that ‘chain of thought.’” feelings, and I thank God that he has given The good news: “I expect to arrive in he has given me one, and by his Great Salt Lake City in about six weeks! [illegible] I will strive to become me one.” or about the time this letter reaches worthy of him . . . the adversary you!!!”70 has exerted his powers to de- As it turned out, Joseph’s release was stroy me, but I have fought against him. It has been a postponed. After a six-month hiatus, Levira finally wrote hard struggle but he has not been permitted to over- again. The letter arrived on 5 July. She was still sick and weak, come.”65 but hearing from her lifted Joseph’s spirits: Joseph replied: Your letter has done me a vast amount of good. Do “My time is fully occupied one way and another . . . you know the Devil tryed to weigh me down with the nearly always so that I have to snatch an opportunity thoughts & fears that you were worse, and I do not
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know what else! but to Judge from my feelings, “that terrible spell of sickness, six weeks, [during which] I Dreams &c. Something Sorrowful, but your letter has never slept a wink, and my nerves were completely unstrung, done much to dispell the cloud, and to restore so that I could not hold a pin, and was sometimes out of my Sunshine. mind.” Referring to letters from Everything we know of those friends he had received in the weeks is contained in Levira’s past six months he joked, “It has 1867 letter to Brigham Young been this, ‘Levira is mending, ‘I and Joseph’s response.77 In her have been to see Levira and she is letter, Levira accused Joseph of improving’ . . . and all the time using “cruel expressions. . . . Said Since, that I really began to think I ought to have a hole, bored in you ‘mended wors’!!”71 the top of my head and some In June, Levira complained of manure put into it for brains.” “a beating on the brain.” In Joseph responded that it was August, she wrote, “since I have only “a joke,” that been sick I am so nervous that it in her wanderings she is imposible for me to write.” She was sometimes more was living again at George A.’s jocular than ever at any home, where she expected to re- other time. And at such main “the remainder of the times I would joke with summer & perhaps untill you her. It was at such a time come home.”72 No one knew that she was complaining of was still more than a year away. her brain feeling ‘mud- In February 1863, Joseph was dled,’ &c. I said, ‘I have beset by another episode of de- sometimes thought that pression: “After meeting I was if a hole were bored into seized with a sorrowful, dejected your head, and some feeling that hung like a weight manure put into it, it upon my mind. I could not get might be an improve- rid of it.” He went to bed at mid- ment, but never mind, night and arose the next morning you are getting better “very sad.” He gave vent to his now.’ I am confident she feelings “in prayer and tears.”73 perfectly understood me The following month, mission Joseph F. Smith in Liverpool, England, circa 1861 and knew it was in jest, president George Q. Cannon but has since argued wrote Joseph that his departure herself into the belief would have to be postponed “Should we not be one? I that I meant to insult her, again—his organizational and or pretends to so believe clerical services were required for have never kept anything to throw blame upon me the upcoming season of emigra- from you, that you and excuse her own con- tion.74 duct. Finally, on 24 June 1863, he should know. All my Recalling a separate incident, sailed for New York, docking on 6 Levira described how one evening July, and, after a brief side trip to thoughts are yours. Let Joseph went out to help her Nauvoo, arrived in the valley on 4 yours be mine.” mother build a chicken coop, but October. He had been away three warned her years and five months if I heard anything un- usual, not to get up or look out. They had been out a “these death dealing, love destroying things—angry words” long time. It seemed two hours to me, and I was very tired, and anxious for someone to come in. Just then a EVIRA WAS AT George A.’s home. Joseph took her back band of music came along and stopped to play in to her mother’s boarding house, but her condition front of our house. So I raised one corner of the blind worsened to the point that George A. feared “the and looked out of the window. Joseph . . . immedi- L 75 prospects of her recovery are not very brilliant.” ately came in with a rope, which he doubled four or For six weeks, Joseph rarely left her side and had not a five times, and struck me five or six times across my single hour of uninterrupted sleep.76 Levira described it as back notwithstanding I begged of him not to strike
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me and said I was sorry that I had disobeyed him.78 whatever you say do, that is right, and that will do! Joseph countered that Levira was, “to all intents and pur- Was it so? No ‘Vira you knew better than I did what poses, insane or possessed, and I had to treat her as I would a was right, you did not ask my counsel, I took the lib- wilful and disobedient child. There was no one but me that erty to counsel as I could do anything with her.” He defended himself, saying that thought it was my sometimes he had to use force “to prevent her doing herself in- right, you were of- jury, and to compel her to take medicine and food.” On the fended, my advice “I am evening in question, he left to stow away some vegetables in was not welcome, you confident the cellar, charging her strictly to lie still, did not offer to be for I knew that at the least noise she did not under- one, & united with she stand, and often at imaginary noises, she would jump me, regarded coming out of bed and more than likely run out of doors in home as untimely and perfectly her night clothes, as she had many times attempted to at last consented in under- do. anger, after it had After only a few minutes, he heard her get up, cross the been put off to the stood me room, and open the window. He rushed back to find her latest moment.85 looking out the window at a band playing “Dixie” in front of On 24 November, they and knew Gilbert & Company’s boarding house across the street. To get boarded a Salt Lake-bound it was in her back into, bed he struck her—only twice—not with a train in Sacramento. But sixty rope, but with “a peach limb not as large around as the butt of miles later, at Dutch Flats in jest, but an office pencil.” the high Sierras, they were Joseph was only twenty-three, trying to care for a highly ag- snowed in for two or three has since itated young wife whom he hardly knew (and certainly not in days. Levira became ill and argued this condition) who was sometimes, by her own admission, wanted to go back. “I saw you out of her mind, other times more “jocular” than he had ever did not want to come and I herself seen her, but always so high-strung and erratic that he dared was determined you should not, or could not, sleep. Considering his hot temper, and his have your own way /at the sac- into the tendency toward depression, his was a herculean effort, emo- rifice of my own feelings/,” belief that tionally and physically. Joseph wrote, so he arranged After these episodes, the couple had three peaceful, albeit for her return.86 I meant to financially strapped months. Brigham Young had publicly pro- Before parting, he urged her posed that the Saints donate $1,000 to help Joseph get started to stay with her aunt, Agness insult her, in life. Brigham himself contributed $50; others donated small Coolbrith Pickett and her or pre- amounts, molasses, a parlor stove, and a pony. Joseph sold the daughter Ina, rather than the pony and used the cash to help defray the expense of his next Kimballs.87 But after a few tends to mission.79 weeks there, Levira decided This time, Joseph, with three other veterans, was to assist she could not abide Mr. so Elders Ezra T. Benson and Lorenzo Snow in retaking the Pickett’s anti-Mormon tirades believe to Hawaiian Mission from adventurer Walter Murray Gibson.80 and moved back to the President Young suggested Levira might go too, if she thought Kimballs. She had some teeth throw the change in climate might be good her.81 pulled and cavities filled, then Joseph left on 2 March 1864.82 For reasons unknown, began to complain of neu- blame Levira did not accompany him. But her mother’s sister, ralgia, kidney problems, and upon me Derinda (or Dorinda), visited Salt Lake in the summer and of- bronchitis, and chronic ner- fered to take Levira to San Francisco where she and her hus- vousness. A doctor diagnosed and band Hazen Kimball would look after her. Brigham and Heber an “ulcerated womb” that he- C. Kimball (no relation to Hazen) blessed Levira, and she ar- morrhaged in March 1865. It excuse rived in San Francisco in September.83 might, he thought, have been a her own Completing his brief mission in the islands, Joseph re- miscarriage. For several turned to San Francisco on 5 November 1864 and went to the months thereafter, Levira suf- conduct.” Kimball home, only to learn that Levira was visiting her uncle, fered heavy, debilitating men- Derinda’s brother, in the country.84 She did not return for a strual flows. Three successive week. By then, Joseph was in no mood to be trifled with: doctors variously prescribed whiskey and water (three times a If you had felt right, or enjoyed the good spirit . . . day); electric charges; nerve tonic and pills; morning walks, you would have said, Now Joseph, you know I am light meals, and tepid baths.88 weak, and I would like to spend a little time here, but In Salt Lake, Joseph was hired to do clerical work in the
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Church Historian’s Office.89 He wrote Ina asking her to keep glected more than the other. I believe in improve- tabs on his wife. Ina thought Levira was a “hypochondriac.” ment. So do you, so does the world. So far I like it, for Despite Levira’s illnesses, Ina wrote, she had been seen at var- I like everything good. ious places of amusement and attended “common balls . . . to Now I want you to cheere up, as much as possible. which anyone who paid their dollar was admitted.”90 Take good care of yourself and grow young, not old, When Joseph suggested to Levira that her protracted stay for if you frightened yourself by looking in the glass, I might be due to something other than ill health, she became fear you’ll frighten me. I want you to look well, and irate: feel well when I come. Go out and get livened up a You insinuate that I have other and private reasons for little, it will do you good. I fear you stay at home so desireing to remain here which heavens knows my much and do so much writing [at work] you get blue heart I have not, and it is unkind of you to imagine so and brood over all [your] trouble. You must not write base and cruel a steadily. It is hurtful and if a little hurts me a good thing of me, and to deal must injure you. If I were you [I] wouldent do it upbrade me for cir- for any body. If you make yourself old and ugly, mo- “Now drive cumstances and af- rose and cross, I will not love you so look out, I give away those flictions which I am you warning. powerless to avoide. You lead the life of a hermit, “see nobody, care for dreary Oh! If I should ac- no body, go no whare.” You do yourself injustice. cuse you in the When friends invite you out why don’t you go? I do thoughts. same manner, what not want you to stay at home in lonlyness, because I Levira will would you say? and am not there. When I am there if not able to go out, how would you then I will want you to bear me company and we’ll not from feel, to think I had have good times “you bet.” no more confidence You do your Parents injustice when you say “you thee part. in you.91 are a fool” for they were intelectual both of them, and Levira will Joseph’s misgivings may you are a “chip of the old block,” and have no need to have been reinforced by her be ashamed of yourself. not break insistence that her mother I know whats the matter, and what you want, and not come to California, that what will do you good, and me too. If you had come thy heart, it would be a needless ex- for me and we could travel togather I would have felt My Joseph pense, and she would be better and you to, a change of scenery and lively com- home “soon.”92 pany is what you want with a contented, happy, dear, my Joseph had taken a job as minde. a clerk in the Church I hope you may feel better when I come home, and Joseph Historian’s Office working if you don’t I’ll get Martha Ann to help me whip you, dear.” six days a week compiling she used to be pretty strong, and if you are sick, we Church history for 1852-53, can manage you I guess, so look out, for a flogging and recording Endowment and all sorts of tricks, and don’t think you know a House ordinances.93 We do “heap” when you don’t know anything. If you get the not have his letters to Levira for this period, but from her let- “big head” what will I do with you? I cant immagine ters, it appears he was anxious about her attitude about re- unless—by-the-by, I shower your head in cold watter. turning to Salt Lake. He missed her and was feeling blue. On Maby you’d like it, and then again maby you 16 June, she wrote: wouldn’t. You want me to talk plainly to you. What shall I say to Now drive away those dreary thoughts. you? that I am true to my husband? Yes, in all truth Levira will not from thee part. and sincerely, I say it. That I am not fasinated with the Levira will not break thy heart, Illurements of the world? No I am not. You may think My Joseph dear, my Joseph dear.94 otherwise but I care nothing about the worldly Two months later, Levira returned. She had been in San minded foolish people, here or anywhere else unless Francisco almost a year and had changed. She had discovered they are good and that is not often the case tho there a fashionable world of comfort and entertainment, and she are some good kind hearted people. The people here liked it. Joseph was focused on his Church and civic responsi- are very free hearted and good to the poor, make pre- bilities. He had been elected to the city council and territorial sants to friends and acquaintances, and seem very lib- House of Representatives, and served on the stake high eral, more so than at home. . . . I would like to be council. Levira became easily bored. They argued frequently. comfortable, and see my friends so and live to im- After one stormy confrontation, Levira wrote: prove the minde and body. One should not be ne- You were very angry this morning. You said I made
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you so, true I did talk unwise to you for which I am companion for life. . . . President Young had advised him [to sory and I ask you to forgive me for all I said this get a wife] and he had told him a number of times, so he morning and for every other offence that I ever gave thought he should obey. I have always thought that the you in my life. I would to heaven that I never had President would have liked him to marry one of his [Brigham given you any offence that no angry or unkind word Young’s] girls. And I know he could have had any girl he knew had ever escaped from my lips to you Joseph that no for the asking.” hard feelings had ever arisen between you and me Julina’s reply to Joseph’s proposal was, “Ask my mother and and from this time I say let us Uncle George. I would not marry the drop them forever and in- best man living without his consent.” dulge no more in these death George A. readily gave his blessing, but dealing, love destroying Julina’s mother “knew how much he things—angry words. In the [Joseph] thought of his wife Levira: name of Levira I will from “‘Julina, Joseph has a wife whom he this very hour try to improve loves and he is not marrying you for in word and deed, and love.’ I answered, “‘Mother, I love him subdew my quick and impul- and if I am good he will learn to love sive nature.95 me. He is the only man I have ever But when the snow began to melt seen that I could love as a husband.’”98 in 1866, Levira was anxious to get out After years of angry confrontation, of the house. “Through her importu- “Joseph has a wife whom he loves,” nities, and continual teasing for a car- was an astute observation. Joseph riage and carriage riding,” Joseph re- would never be attracted to another called, he agreed to buy a third woman the way he was to Levira, and interest in a second-hand carriage. Julina wisely recognized the difference “After this I heard nothing but ‘buggy,’ in his feelings. He was passionate ‘Take me out,’ ‘I need to ride.’ ‘You’ve about Levira, but Julina was the better got a carriage take me out,’ &c. &c.” match—and learn to love her he did. Exasperated, Joseph exclaimed he Julina and Joseph were married on “wished the carriage was smashed,” 5 May 1866. Levira, Joseph acknowl- and accused her of harboring “ideas edged, “performed her whole duty above her station.” most nobly and good, for which I am “I am sorry to have to say I have Julina Lambson Smith thankful,” then added, “far more on been under the necessity of setting my her own account than on mine. I have foot down very firm at times,” Joseph had no other object in view than to confessed, “generally allowing her to “He is the only man obey counsel and benefit ‘Vira as much have her own way, as she always felt or more than myself.”99 that I had no right to dictate. And she I have ever seen Two months later, on 1 July 1866, never once, to the best of my recollec- that I could love as he was ordained an apostle.100 (The or- tion, cheerfully obeyed my counsel. dination was not made public, there More especially since my return from a husband.” not being a vacancy in the Council of England, but particularly after her Aunt the Twelve.) Derinda visited her from California. Our troubles date from that visit, as our letters will show.”96 “You are to be pitied, and I forgive you”
“he will learn to love me” N 24 JULY, he set off with traveling bishop A. M. Musser on a two-week tour of the southern settle- HILE CLERKING IN the Church Historian’s Office ments, followed by a month in the north, then back O 101 (George A. Smith’s home), Joseph made the ac- south for three weeks. Levira, ever restless and seemingly W quaintance of Bathsheba Smith’s eighteen-year-old bent on irritating her husband whenever possible, moved back niece, Julina Lambson. Julina’s parents, who lived just two to her mother’s. For several months, she had lacked the energy blocks away, were unable to support four children, so she lived to make her bed or clean the room, but while Joseph was gone, mostly with her aunt. she attended the lectures of cousin Alexander H. Smith, son of For some time, apostle Erastus Snow had been urging Joseph Smith, Jr. Alexander was visiting Salt Lake on behalf of Joseph to take a plural wife,97 so when Julina returned from a the RLDS Church. six-month visit to relatives in Fillmore, “he [Joseph] did not When Joseph returned in late September, he discovered lose any time . . . in finding out whether or not I had found a Levira was not at home, but he waited until the next day to go
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to her mother’s. Levira “received me with marked disrespect ever I caught a stranger and a gentile in her bedroom and discourtesy in the presence of my brother John, S. H. B. again under such circumstances, there would be Smith, and William Pierce. I subsequently called several times blood shed if I swung for it. and her conduct toward me was most petulant and disre- Joseph was “not responsible for what [he] said or did” because spectful.” he was filled with passion.102 On his way to city council meeting on 4 October, Joseph That night he agreed to give Levira a divorce. But the next stopped by to retrieve his keys from Levira. The house was day, he returned seeking reconciliation. She insisted he apolo- quite dark except for one gize to Mr. Harris. candle by which he saw To this every feeling in me revolted. Nevertheless, “I her sitting close to a Mr. after considering the matter, I wrote a studied apology Harris. (Levira said he to Mr. Harris, as non-compromising as I could word considered it had been reading to her, it, regretting that I had lost my temper and had to which Joseph retorted spoken so harshly to my wife in the presence of a unbecoming if that were so, “it was stranger. and dis- from a book with raised Levira accepted the apology, “and things went on again as be- letters and he had read by fore, although a weight was upon my mind that almost dis- graceful, hand.”) Joseph flew into a heartened me, for I saw where her course would lead her rage. According to Levira, to.”103 and . . . I he called her Eight months later, they separated for the last time. But the would not a d--n whore. A emotional attachment had not dissolved. He wrote: little stain’d ille- I do not want your things . . . nor do I wish to deprive allow it. gitimate whore you of one grot that is yours. Neither do I begrudge and a liar, and if aught that I have done for you, tho’ you have requited And if ever he ever caught a me heartlessly, evil for good. I blame others [Derinda I caught a man in my room Kimball] and pitty you. again there As for the items she believed to be hers, Joseph, hurting stranger would be blood deeply, continued: shed if he had to I will simply say, you are welcome to your conviction, and a gentile swing for it. He and your conscience /will/ never accuse you of having in her threw my chair told the truth! . . . I am astounded at the brazen im- back against the pudence manifested in two lines of your note, that in bedroom stove, and relation to “your cow cherry”!! Contemplating the de- opened the front liberate affrontery intended, the unparalleled imperti- again . . . door so that nence of such ideas, I do not wonder that you claim there would passers-by could blankets and anything else that is not yours!! But hear, and said, words are futile. You are to be pitied, and I forgive be blood madam, if you you.104 want a divorce Joseph did not acknowledge any responsibility for the shed if I I’ll give you one. break-up. When it became known that Levira had gone to swung for it.” When I said, California and obtained a divorce on grounds that Joseph had very well, I’ll taken a concubine,105 questions arose in Salt Lake, to which he take it, this replied, evening. So he left the house. My first wife * * * [asterisks in original] was inti- In his own defense, Joseph explained, mately acquainted from her childhood with the I was now almost choked with anger and humiliation, young lady who became my second wife, and it was and could not contain my rage. I was therefore not re- with their [sic] full knowledge and consent that I en- sponsible for what I said or did. Still, I remember tered into plural marriage, my first wife being present everything distinctly. I do believe that if I had been as a witness when I took my second wife, and freely armed I would have done violence to him, and I told gave her consent thereto. Our associations as a family him so. I told her plainly her conduct was ‘whorish were pleasant and harmonious. It was not until long and illegitimate.’ I did not call her a whore. I asked after the second marriage that my first wife was drawn her if she was not ashamed of herself, and if she from us, not on account of domestic troubles, but for thought such conduct was becoming a married other causes. In eight years of wedded life we had no woman. And furthermore, whatever she thought of it, children. She constantly complained of ill health and I considered it unbecoming and disgraceful, and so was as constantly under a doctor’s care. She con- long as she was my wife, I would not allow it. And if cluded to go to California for her health and before
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going procured a separation. This all occurred pre- Joseph married Julina’s sister, Edna, on 1 January 1871, and vious to 1868.106 on 30 January, Sarah delivered another daughter, Leonora. The reasons Joseph gives above gloss over the issue of Edna brought the first son, Hyrum Mack, into the family on 21 Levira’s jealousy, which, from time to time, he indicated had March 1872. been a factor. In remarks to Hawaiian missionaries in 1886, he confided that he “had paid so much attention to his first wife “. . . the veritable traitor [who] has poisoned your peace” that she was unwilling to share his affections with his second wife. He advised the missionaries to avoid his trouble by ‘be- N THE FALL of 1872, James and Mary Ann Fielding stowing no more love upon one wife than can be given equally McKnight moved into the house next door. If ever there to several.’”107 I were a man who would test Joseph’s patience, it was James That jealousy might have been a strong factor is also hinted McKnight. He had married at in a letter Levira wrote to RLDS president Joseph Smith III in one of Joseph’s cousins, but 1880. In it, she intimated that polygamy had been the source treated her shabbily, and he “Your of her troubles with Joseph. Summarizing her complaints had the irritating habit of President Smith replied, “when [Joseph] married others you turning his animals into the life-long were dissatisfied and after finding the condition to be unen- Smith corn patch at night plea of durable . . . you left him.”108 where they did considerable Joseph’s relationship with Levira had been complex and damage.111 inherent painful. The fact that Levira moved out twelve weeks after On New Year’s Day 1873, Joseph married Julina suggests that their “associations as a Joseph went to “have a settle- and un- family” were probably not “pleasant and harmonious.” ment” with McKnight. “He controlable However he finally sorted it out in his own mind, the failure of insulted me, and would give his eight-year marriage was a tragedy—one of the greatest me no satisfaction. I struck frenzy at trials of his life. him three times with my cane. I then went and com- the sight of “essentially a domestic man” plained of myself to [Justice some Jeter] Clinton, for breaking HE MARRIAGE TO Julina was blessed, as, for the most the peace, explaining the hobgoblin part, were the marriages to his succeeding wives. In whole matter.” Then, he re- the heart of T each relationship, the parties had to deal with the jeal- turned to see how McKnight, ousies, personality conflicts, and misunderstandings that natu- ten years his senior, was your rally arise in plural families, but considering all the stresses, faring. The next day, Joseph Joseph was remarkably successful as a husband and father. “apologized for losing my temper has “I am essentially a domestic man,” he wrote. “I lack cos- temper, and asked his for- mopolitan qualities. I could burrow in the sacred precincts of giveness for striking him.” personified my home and be content to dwell forever in the society and McKnight accepted the . . . is worn hearts of my family, and no more go out from them.”109 apology.112 On 14 August 1866 (eleven days before Joseph completed Naturally, word that an thread- his response to Levira’s charges), Julina blessed Joseph with his apostle of the Lord had first child, Mercy Josephine. In 1869, Julina and Joseph’s next clubbed his neighbor with a bare.” wife, Sarah Ellen Richards, both bore daughters. Sarah’s infant cane provided fodder for titil- lived only six days. Julina’s daughter, Mary Sophronia, sur- lating conversation in Salt Lake. At April conference, according vived, but Josephine remained the apple of her father’s eye. to the Tribune, Joseph said he “did not claim to be perfect, as he Then in the spring of 1870, Josephine became ill. Joseph had many weaknesses; he was a passionate man, and had stayed up with her several nights in a row. On 5 June, he wrote sometimes been, to a certain extent, overcome by it, but had in his diary, “I have no apetite. My sympathy and solicitude for not done anything criminal in that respect. The gospel kept my darling little Josephine has greatly bowed my spirit, him at peace with his neighbors and his brethren, with whom notwithstanding I think I have received a testimony that she he never had any quarrels that is, said Mr. Smith, but to a very will not die. Still she is a sensitive, delicate and tender little limited extent.”113 creature, and loves her ‘papa.’” A year after the incident, McKnight wrote Joseph that his She died the next day. Joseph grieved for a long time. “It is injuries were permanent and painful. Some doctors, he said, one month yesterday since my little loved, cherished, darling even believed his life would be shortened. Then, he added, Josephine died. . . . O! that I could have saved her to grow up Your life-long plea of inherent and uncontrollable to womanhood. I miss her every day, and I am lonely. My heart frenzy at the sight of some hobgoblin the heart of is sad. God forgive my weakness, if it is wrong to love my little your temper has personified as the veritable traitor ones as I love them and especially my first darling babe.”110 whose grim visage has poisoned your peace for a
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quarter of a century past, is worn thread-bare. It outgrows the other (mainly in imagination). Then cannot any longer screen moral and mental imbecility. comes sorrow.116 The drunkard who murders another under the plea On the same day, he wrote Edna, “I notice in myself a that his minor madness will relieve the crime of its propencity to find fault or grumble, or to be dissatisfied with monstrosity, exposes his predisposition to commit the as many things as I can. I am sorry for it and I am glad I can see crime.114 it to some extent and I hope to overcome it.”117 The maturing Setting aside the incendiary rhetoric, the core of McKnight’s Joseph hadn’t conquered his weaknesses, but he had begun to 1874 accusation is consistent with Joseph’s see them more clearly. defense in his and Levira’s 1866 divorce In 1904, Joseph endured three proceedings: he sought to explain—and days of intense questioning by the perhaps justify—outrageous behavior and Senate committee investigating the language on grounds that he was over- election of Reed Smoot, which was come with rage. What McKnight adds is really an investigation of the Church the interesting detail that these outbursts and allegations of post-Manifesto had “poisoned [his] peace for a quarter of polygamy. In 1905, Frank J. a century past”—roughly since 1850. Cannon, son of George Q. Cannon, (The Smith family journeyed to Utah in Joseph’s mentor and colleague for 1848; Mary died in 1852.) For eighteen forty years, launched a sustained months after his mother’s death, Joseph re- and personal attack on President ported he was out of control—“like a Smith in the Salt Lake Tribune. By comet or fiery meteor.” But neither the then, he had learned an important passage of time, nor missions to the is- lesson. “My greatest difficulty,” he lands and England, nor a calling to the wrote his son Alvin, “has been to apostleship had extinguished the fires of guard my temper— to keep cool in rage in his heart.115 the moment of excitement or trial. I have always been too quick to re- “. . . the question is could I do better” sent a wrong, too impatient, or hasty. I hope you will be very MONTH AFTER McKnight’s careful, my son, on these points. He letter, Joseph was called to preside who can govern himself is greater A over the European Mission. Back than he who ruleth a city.”118 in England, he found himself reflecting on Joseph F. Smith, Liverpool, England, 1874 his life. At thirty-six, he had three wives NOTES and nine living children. On 21 January 1875, he wrote Julina: “It is when we I have had some little time for NOTE ON SOME OF THE SOURCE MATERIAL FOR forget to love each THIS ARTICLE. The Joseph F. Smith papers, in- sober reflection on my past experi- cluding correspondence, diaries, account books, ence, and can see many crooked the other . . . that and miscellaneous papers, are in the LDS Church ways that might with greater Archives. Shortly after they were delivered to the wisdom have been straight . . . not distances grow up Historical Department in 1975, Church Historian Leonard J. Arrington invited me to go intentionally wrong, but ridicu- between man and through them, suggesting I might prepare a bi- lous, foolish, the result of impa- ography. Unfortunately, the collection has since tience and nothing more, but bad wife, and one been closed. enough to leave a lasting regret that they ever occurred. Then I outgrows the other 1. B. W. Richmond’s account is the only eye- deeply regret many foolish, (mainly in witness description of Smith family activity in wrong, impetuous actions . . . but Nauvoo on 28 June 1844. Originally published the question is could I do better to imagination). Then in the Chicago Times, the account was reprinted pass thro the same ordeals again. I under the headline “The Prophet’s Death!” in the comes sorrow.” 27 November 1875 Deseret News. In its intro- hope so but I do not know. duction, the News stated that the account “is in . . . It is when we forget to love the main correct as concerning the tragedy each the other, and cease to cultivate that divine plant which is the burden of the article.” According to the Times, Dr. Richmond was not a member of the Church, but he was sympathetic to the prophet, having known (which may shoot up with remarkable vigor and him in Palmyra, New York. He had also visited him in Ohio. make rapid growth in courtship, . . but needs mutual 2. Joseph F. Smith, “Boyhood Recollections,” Utah Genealogical and Historical nurture in the stern realities of connubial life) that Magazine 7 (April 1916): 58. distances grow up between man and wife, and one 3. Richmond.
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“My greatest difficulty has been to guard my temper. . . . I have always been too quick to resent a wrong, too impatient, or hasty.”
4. History of the Church (hereafter HC) 6:627. that I was wilfully disobedient, but I would forget what I ought to do; 5. Dan Jones, “The Martyrdom of Joseph Smith and His Brother Hyrum,” I would go off with playful boys and be absent when I should have trans. (from Welsh) Ronald D. Dennis, BYU Studies 24 (winter 1984): 108. been at home, and I would forget to do things I was asked to do. Then 6. Richmond. I would go home, feel guilty, know that I was guilty, that I had ne- 7. Preston Nibley, The Presidents of the Church (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book glected my duty and that I deserved punishment. Company, 1941), 229. On one occasion I had done something that was not just right, and 8. Joseph was not alone in his fears. His cousin Mary Jane Fielding recalled, my mother said to me: “Now, Joseph, if you do that again I shall have “One time our enemies threatened to raid Nauvoo while the men were away. My to whip you.” Well, time went on, and by and by, I forgot it, and I did Mother and Auntie were alone with us children so they began planning to defend something similar again; and this is the one thing that I admired more, our home. They brought the pitchfork, the hoe and the rake and the across into perhaps, than any secondary thing in her; it was that when she made a the house, and filled everything on the stove with water to heat. They also placed promise she kept it. She never made a promise, that I know of, that she the cayenne pepper on the table ready to use and waited for the enemy, but they did not keep. did not come.” Rachel Fielding Burton reminiscence, LDS Church Archives. Well, she had a little rawhide, already there, and while she was 9. Abraham H. Cannon diary, 6 December 1889. Special Collections, Harold talking or reasoning with me, showing me how much I deserved it and B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. how painful it was to her, to inflict the punishment I deserved, I had 10. Samuel H. Smith’s first wife, Mary Bailey, left him with four children when only one thought and that was: “For goodness’ sake whip me; do not she died in January 1841: Lucy, Suzannah, Mary, and Samuel H. B. His second reason with me,” for I felt the lash of her just criticism and admonition wife, Levira, had a daughter, Levira (who would later marry Joseph F. Smith) and a thousand fold worse than I did the switch. was pregnant with another child when Samuel died. She and young Levira went to 22. Heber C. Kimball was an exception. “With the exception of the attentions, live with relatives until she delivered; Lucy went to live with her grandmother kindness and care bestowed by [Heber C. and Vilate Kimball] upon my mother in Lucy Mack Smith; Suzannah, Mary, and Samuel H. B.moved in with Mary’s family. her last illness, for which I have ever felt to bless them, and which was accidental, A few months later, eight-year-old Susanna moved to live with an aunt, Hannah she having been stricken down while attending meeting in this city, she received Brown, in Wisconsin, and seven-year-old Mary moved to another household; five- no support from either the church or any human being, while on the other hand year-old Samuel H. B. remained about a year before being taken in by his father’s she contributed largely to the support of others besides supporting her own cousin, Elias Smith. Ruby K. Smith, Mary Bailey (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book family.” Joseph F. Smith to Solomon F. Kimball, 23 September 1889. Company, 1954), 188–90; Samuel H. B. Smith diary, 1, LDS Church Archives, MS 23. Joseph F. Smith to Susa Young Gates, 26 May 1890. 4672. 24. Joseph F. Smith to Samuel L. Adams, 11 May 1888, in “Courage: Joseph F. 11. Pearson H. Corbett, Hyrum Smith: Patriarch (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Smith Letters,” Joseph Fielding McConkie, comp., 2. Excerpts from Joseph F. Company, 1976), 426n6, indirectly quoting Mary [sic] Ann Smith Harris, Message Smith Letterpress Copybook in private possession. LDS Church History Library. to My Posterity (centennial letter) written 2 March 1881, opened 6 April 1930. 25. Charles W. Nibley, “Reminiscences,” Improvement Era, 22 (January 1919): 12. Susa Young Gates, “Mothers in Israel,” Relief Society Magazine 3 (March 191–203; Joseph Fielding Smith, comp., Life of Joseph F. Smith, 2d ed. (Salt Lake 1916): 131. City: Deseret Book Company, 1966), 229. Teacher and pupil apparently recon- 13. Joseph F. Smith, “Boyhood Recollections,” 59. ciled shortly thereafter, however. On 5 May 1854, “in company with D. M. 14. Over 350 deaths due to consumption (tuberculosis), scurvy, canker, Merrick, bound for the Sandwich Islands. . . . In a day or so we joined some 18 of cholera, scarlet fever, typhus, and other causes in Winter Quarters and nearby our brotheren who were bound for the same place.” Joseph F. Smith diary. Cutler’s Park from 1846 to 1848 are documented in Conrey Bryson, Winter Merrick was not a Sandwich Islands missionary. His purpose in traveling with the Quarters (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1986), 131–63. missionaries, and how far they journeyed together, is not known. Later, Joseph 15. Joseph Fielding diary, 144; B. F. Cummings Jr., “Shining Lights: How They said he had learned more under Merrick than any of the other five teachers he re- Acquired Brightness,” Contributor 16 (January 1895): 165. called. Cummings, “Shining Lights,” 174. 16. Joseph F. Smith diary, 13 November 1860; Gates, 132. Regarding the 26. In 1867, George A. Smith said of Joseph, “His father and mother left him home, see Frank T. Matheson, The Mary Fielding Smith Adobe Home (Boulder, when he was a child, and we have been looking after him to try and help him Colorado: Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 1980), 62. The along. We first sent him to school, but it was not long before he licked the school- home, completed in 1850, stood on what is now the southwest corner of 27th master, and could not go to school. Then we sent him on a mission, and he did South and Highland Drive. pretty well at that.” Nibley, “Reminiscences,” 191. 17. Living with Mary were her children Joseph and Martha Ann, stepchildren 27. Nibley, The Presidents of the Church, 236. John, Jerusha, and Sarah, and two elderly persons, George Mills and Hannah 28. This publication is the beginning of a family myth—a story based on fact Grinnells, who had been with the family for many years. but serving a different purpose. It contains time-honored themes of persecution, 18. Joseph Fielding Smith to James E. Talmage, 28 October 1908. At the exodus, inspiration, and betrayal. The manuscript was judiciously revised and ex- October 1851 conference, President Young exulted, “Tithing is coming in so fast panded for Joseph F. Smith, “Recollections,” Juvenile Instructor 6 (March–June their will not be room to receive it . . . Our graineries & store House are full of 1871): 37, 87, 91, 98–99. wheat & good things.” Scott Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff’s Journal (Midvale, 29. In March 1851, Brigham Young reorganized the Provo Ward with Elias H. Utah: Signature Books, 1983), 4:72. Blackburn as bishop, William Young and Harlow Redfield as counselors. The fol- 19. Joseph F. Smith to Solomon F. Kimball, 23 September 1898. Mary married lowing month, Redfield was elected to the first city council. Andrew Jenson, her old friend Heber C. Kimball in 1846, which, in her case, meant only that she Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson could call on him for assistance. Stanley B. Kimball, Heber C. Kimball: Mormon History Co. and Andrew Jenson Memorial Association, 1901–1936), 1:491; [Dale Patriarch and Pioneer (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981), 122–23. L. Morgan] Provo: Pioneer Mormon City, (Portland: Binfords & Mort, 1942, com- 20. Martha Ann Smith Harris, Message to My Posterity (centennial letter) piled under the auspices of the Workers of the Writers’ Program of the Work written 2 March 1881, opened 6 April 1930. Cited in Don C. Corbett, Mary Projects Administration for the State of Utah), 63. Fielding Smith: Daughter of Britain (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1974), 30. Harlow Redfield was accused of helping William McLellin and others 265. plunder Joseph Smith’s house in Far West in 1839. The incident was reported in 21. Joseph F. Smith, “The Love of Mother,” Improvement Era, 13 (1910): the Deseret News on 2 February 1854, which was publishing a history of the 276–280: Church. No mention was made of Hyrum’s home or possessions. Redfield re- When I was a child, somewhat a wayward, disobedient little boy, not sponded with a letter published in the 16 March issue of the paper:
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“Once stern and unrelenting, he has mellowed as the years go on, until he sees but the good in humanity and forgives men their trespasses.”119
I was at Hyrum Smith’s house, rather by accident than design, in com- Indians! Get up quick widow Smith! We’r beset by Indians’ Mother replied, ‘Why pany with McLellin and Burr Riggs, at a time when they took some don’t you arouse the men, I don’t see what I can do, father Lott.’ At this he went to books, etc., but was not with them when they went to Joseph’s. Soon the next wagon where some of the family were asleep, shaking it rather milder, after the rumor got afloat; I explained the matter before the Council in and sneaked off, not wishing to carry the alarm any farther.” Missouri satisfactorily, as I supposed, but some time after, an enemy, in 36. When he was age 21, Joseph wrote John, “The hardest thing for me to for- my absence, again agitated the subject before the Conference in give is wraped in the memory of C. P. Lott! Yet even that I forgive, tho’ I never will Nauvoo, which led to an inquiry before the High Council in presence forget it.” Joseph F. Smith to John Smith, 20 January 1861. of Joseph and Hyrum, and the subject appearing its true light, Joseph 37. Just when Joseph began using tobacco and liquor cannot be definitely instructed the council to give me a certificate of acquittal, that would stated, but in 1875, he wrote, “From my childhood—for twenty years and up- close every man’s mouth. wards I chewed the filthy weed,” suggesting the early 1850s. Joseph F. Smith to J. The certificate indicated that no one was brought, “nor did an implication ap- D. T. McAllister, August 23, 1875. pear, nor do we believe that a charge could be sustained against Elder Redfield. He Evidence for dating the early use of liquor is speculative. As noted in the text volunteered confession of certain inadvertent, imprudent [but] no evil meaning (sidebar, page 51) and below (notes 52–57), in 1883, he announced that he loved acts, that he greatly sorrowed for, and asked forgiveness for his folly in such acts.” liquor but had overcome his problem with it. In 1903, an unattributed essay in- Redfield was “forgiven” and his standing was to be “the same as if no evil insinua- cluding the following lines appeared in the Improvement Era: tion had ever been brought against him.” Redfield concluded, “I will only add that I had a good friend who told me, when I was fourteen years of age, that I had before heard how that ‘poor Tray’ got whipped for being in bad company, if I would refuse strong drink for the next six years there would be little and it ought to have been a sufficient warning for me, and I trust it will be for the fear that I would ever thereafter care for liquor, or become a drunkard. future.” HC 3:287. At that time, I was very fond of liquor, and, in one of my serious mo- Redfield’s admission of “ inadvertent, imprudent [but] no evil meaning acts” ments of reflection, I saw where it might lead me, and told such friend may refer to breaking Hyrum’s lock. If so, the high council, Joseph, and Hyrum that I feared the results. It was then he told me how to avoid danger. I himself accepted his explanation. But Mary did not. Instead, she passed on the ac- followed his advice, and liquor is no temptation to me now. But my cusation to Joseph and perhaps others. The episode leaves several questions unan- habit was not formed without severe training of my will, without strict swered: Was Mary the “enemy” who agitated the matter in Nauvoo? If so, why and frequent repetitions of self-denial. didn’t she lodge a complaint before the high council? What motives might she Three circumstances suggest President Smith’s authorship. First, he was the have to pass on such a story to her young son? Did she hold a grudge against editor of the publication and there is no other indication of authorship; second, of Cornelius P. Lott as well, and did she share it with Joseph in a way that affected his the eighteen months he described as “perilous times for me . . . from Sept 21st, recollection of the trek to Utah? 1852 to April, 1854,” twelve were while he was fourteen; and third, as discussed 31. “We must ‘pray for them that hate us and despitefully use us,’ and . . . I in the text, though we have found no indication of excessive drinking, it was many pray that my enemies and those who do evil be cursed with the Sting of their own years before he was able to give it up completely. inequity, and receive the reward due for their demerits. This is as good as I can feel 38. Joseph F. Smith to George A. Smith, 20 October 1854. towards them.” Joseph F. Smith to Levira Annette Smith, 8 July 1862. 39. Joseph F. Smith to Martha Ann Smith (Harris), 28 January 1855, Joseph “In all cases where charity can cover as a mantle a sin or even a multitude of Smith Sr. Family Papers, Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham sins without harm accruing to others, the mantle of charity is the right thing. Your Young University, Vault MSS 775. grandfather [Hyrum Smith] won the title of a ‘merciful man’. No man will go far- 40. Hammond diary, 8–10 April 1855. ther than I to forgive a truly repentant sinner . . . Always lean towards mercy, but 41. Scott Kenney, “Mormons and the Smallpox Epidemic of 1853,” The Hawaii remember there is no forgiveness or remission of sin without repentance.” Joseph Journal of History (1997): 9–26. F. Smith to Alvin F. Smith, 22 July 1905. 42. Joseph wrote that when he started as a missionary in 1854, “I was 15 years 32. Lott (1798–1850) had managed Joseph Smith’s farm three miles from old and had never written a letter in my life, and did not know how to write a Nauvoo. Rhea Lott Vance, Descendants of Cornelius Peter Lott: 1798 (Providence, duzzen words, but I began to feel the need of education so I studied and practiced Utah: n.p., 172), 7, 16. He and his wife, Permellia, were among the few who re- and prayed and tried to learn and have been learning at a disadvantage ever since, ceived their temple endowments prior to the opening of the Nauvoo temple. They until now I can just write to be understood.” Joseph F. Smith to Robert B. Taylor, 9 also received their second anointings during the Prophet’s lifetime. D. Michael March 1875. Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 43. Joseph F. Smith to J. C. Rich, 27 July 1861. 1994), 114–16, 139, 494–98; David John Buerger, Mysteries of Godliness: A History 44. Hammond diary, 27, 30 December 1854; 9–10 April, 9 June, 5 July 1855. of Mormon Temple Worship (San Francisco: Smith Research Associates, 1994), 36, 45. Joseph F. Smith diary, 4 July 1856. 64–65. Also HC 7:541; Joseph Fielding diary, 75. LDS Church Archives, MS 7617. 46. Joseph F. Smith diary, 1 May 1856; 30 April 1857. 33. This is the only incident in Joseph’s account supported by other witnesses. 47. Joseph F. Smith diary, 22 April 1857. His uncle, Joseph Fielding, recorded, “One said it was great Folly to attempt to go 48. Joseph F. Smith diary, 4 May 1857. as we were fixt.” Joseph Fielding diary, 195. 49. President Young later withdrew the remaining missionaries from all mis- 34. In the valley, Lott managed Brigham Young’s Forrest Dale farm, four miles sions to defend Utah against an advancing federal army, but he had virtually given southeast of Temple Square, and one mile northwest of the Mary Fielding Smith up on the Sandwich Islands mission before that decision was implemented: “The farm. He died 6 July 1850, at the age of 51. Rhea Lott Vance, Descendants of reports from the Sandwich Islands have for a number of years agreed in one Cornelius Peter Lott, 16. Other than Joseph’s recollection, I have seen no derogatory thing,” Brigham Young wrote mission president Henry Bigler 4 September 1857, remarks about Brother Lott. “and that is that the majority of the Saints on these islands have either been dead 35. In 1884, Joseph wrote Mary would not let him do night duty. He “was, or are dying spiritually. It would appear that they occasionally, spasmodically resu- therefore, frequently sneered at as being ‘petted by his mother,’ which was a sore sicate for a moment, only to sink lower than they were before. . . . You had better trial to him.” “A Noble Woman’s Experience,” Heroines of “Mormondom,” Noble wind up the whole business and return with most of the Elders as soon as pos- Women’s Lives Series, Vol. 2, (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor, 1884): 27. sible.” Minutes of the Honolulu Hawaii Mission, 16 October 1857. LDS Church In the final incident of the manuscript, Lott comes to the large carriage where Archives. Mary, Martha Ann, and Joseph are sleeping, and urgently whispers “‘Indians, 50. Jane Fisher to Joseph F. Smith, 26 June 1859.
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This1893 photo of women temple workers captures at one moment several important women in Joseph’s life. (Seated L-R) Bathsheba Smith (wife of George A. Smith), Julina Lambson Smith (wife) , Mercy R. Thompson (aunt), Zina D. H. Young, Lucy Bigelow, Minerva Snow. (Seated on floor) Edna Lambson Smith (wife), Christina Willardson. (Standing) ______, ______, Adeline H. Barber, Ellen Roy Metheny. (Esther Parkinson, Frances Cann Brown are in picture, but unidentified )
51. “I was surprised to learn that so many of the new brethren [in Joseph F. 59. Joseph F. Smith to Levira Annette Smith, 26 February 1859. Smith’s group] were in the habit of using tobacco. The majority of the 18 have 60. Journal History, 5 April 1859. Levira (29 April 1842–18 December 1888) used it more or less ever since they left their homes.” Hammond diary, 28 July was the daughter of Samuel H. Smith (1808–1844), and Levira Clark 1855. (1815–1893). 52. In 1883, Joseph acknowledged to the Salt Lake School of the Prophets that 61. Joseph F. Smith to Levira Annette Smith, 14 June 1860. “he had used tobacco, and he loved liquor,” but he had quit and believed anyone 62. Levira Annette Smith to Joseph F. Smith, 23 July 1860. who wanted to could do the same. Salt Lake School of the Prophets: Minutebook 63. Joseph F. Smith to Levira Annette Smith, 5 September 1860. 1883, Merle H. Graffam, comp., (Palm Desert, California: ULC Press), 81. For the 64. Levira Annette Smith to Joseph F. Smith, 14 August 1860. evolution of Word of Wisdom teachings and practice, see Thomas G. Alexander, 65. Levira Annette Smith to Joseph F. Smith, 3 November 1861. “The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement,” Dialogue: A Journal of 66. Joseph F. Smith to Levira Annette Smith, 17 December 1861. Mormon Thought 14 (fall 1980): 78–87. 67. Mary Jane Thompson Taylor in David Taylor’s letter to Joseph F. Smith, 1 53. Joseph F. Smith to J. D. T. McAllister, 23 August 1875. December 1861. 54. Eugene E. Campbell, Establishing Zion: The Mormon Church in the American 68. Martha Ann Harris to Joseph F. Smith, 12 January 1862. West, 1847–1869 (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1988), 176. In the 1870s, 69. Joseph F. Smith diary, 9 April 1862, citing letter of Zina D. H. Young. Brigham Young and George A. Smith in particular urged young men not to take up 70. Joseph F. Smith to Levira Annette Smith, 1 March 1862. the habit. Joseph noted George A.’s comments about chewing tobacco: “It was a 71. Joseph F. Smith to Levira Annette Smith, 8 July 1862. sin to chew tobacco, an unpardonable sin to spit tobacco juice on the floor, and 72. Levira Annette Smith to Joseph F. Smith, 29 June 1862, cited in Joseph F. total depravity to make a spitoon of a linen shirt bosom.” Joseph F. Smith diary, 27 Smith diary, 16 October 1862; Levira Annette Smith to Joseph F. Smith, 10 August June 1871. 1862. 55. Joseph F. Smith to J. D. T. McAllister, op cit. 73. Joseph F. Smith diary, 8, 9 February 1863. Joseph did not record his feel- 56. Salt Lake School of the Prophets, 81. ings again until the diary entry of 27 April: “We had a little wine and spent the 57. William W. Cluff to Joseph F. Smith, 26 September 1862; Joseph F. Smith evening very agreeably, Samuel [H. B. Smith], Parley [P. Pratt, Jr.], and myself.” diary, entries for 29 January 1863, 4 July 1873, 28 July 1874, 1 April 1874. 74. George Q. Cannon to Joseph F. Smith, 29 March 1863. 58. Joseph Fisher, Sr. to Joseph F. Smith, 23 February 1859. 75. George A. Smith to John L. Smith, 29 August 1863, and to John Smith, 10
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This family portrait was taken close to the time Joseph F. Smith succeeded with whom he had no children, Joseph had five other wives and Mary Taylor Schwartz (married, 1884, seven children); Edna Lambson (marr including Joseph Fielding Smith—top row, center); Sarah Ellen Richards (marri
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ded Lorenzo Snow as Church president in October 1901. Besides Levira, and forty-eight children. His wives are (L to R seated by Joseph): married 1871, ten children); Julina Lambson (married 1866, thirteen children, arried 1868, eleven children); Alice Ann Kimball (married 1883, seven children).
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October 1863, Historian’s Office Letterpress. 99. Joseph F. Smith to Samuel H.B. Smith, 13 June 1866, Samuel H.B. Smith 76. Joseph F. Smith to Brigham Young, 25 August 1864, Brigham Young col- papers. lection, LDS Church archives; Joseph F. Smith to B. H. Watts, 12 August 1875. 100. Untitled document beginning “On Sunday afternoon July 1, 1866, 77. Both documents are in the Brigham Young incoming correspondence, reel President Brigham Young . . .” in the Brigham Young collection. 74. Levira’s letter is not dated; Joseph’s (which follows immediately) is dated 25 101. Historian’s Office Journal, 24 July 1866; Joseph F. Smith to George August 1867. A note on the back of his letter indicates it was received 18 Nebeker, 24 December 1866. September 1867. 102. In making such a bold statement, Joseph may have also had in mind the 78. In an 1864 letter to Joseph, Levira made a similar complaint. For three and successful defense argument made by George A. Smith in the 1851 murder trial of a half years, she had “patiently waited for one kind true friend to return to me to Howard Egan, who had killed James Monroe, the seducer of his wife: “In this ter- whom I could tell all my troubles and sufferings, and who would listen to sooth, ritory it is a principle of mountain common law, that no man can seduce the wife comfort, and dispell all those clouds and sorrows from my heart.” Instead, Joseph of another without endangering his own life. . . . The man who seduces his neighbor’s “could or did not comfort me. You acted as tho you hated me because I was sick wife must die, and her nearest relative must kill him! . . . If Howard Egan had not and helpless. You tormented me, laughed at me, and Oh! I blush to say it, struck killed that man, he would have been damned by the community for ever, and me. The act did not wound my body, but my feelings and pride . . . I must learn to could not have lived peaceably, without the frown of every man.” Journal of bow to you, however inconsistant you might be even if it cost my life.” Levira Discourses 1:97; Michael W. Homer, “The Judiciary and the Common Law in Utah Annette Smith to Joseph F. Smith, incomplete letter, n.d. Territory,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 21 (spring 1989): 155; Edwin 79. Cummings, 170. Brown Firmage and Richard Collin Mangrum, Zion in the Courts: A Legal History of 80. Gwynn Barrett, “Walter Murray Gibson: The Shepherd Saint of Lanai the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, Revisited,” Utah Historical Quarterly 40 (1972): 142–162; and R. Lanier Britsch, 1988), 217; B. H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, 2d ed., (Provo: “Another Visit with Walter Murray Gibson,” Utah Historical Quarterly 46 (1978): Brigham Young University Press, 1965), 4:135–36n58. 65–78. 103. These statements, and all other information about Joseph’s and Levira’s 81. Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball to Joseph F. Smith, W. W. Cluff, and lives from her move back to her mother’s through his apology to Mr. Harris, is John R. Young, 10 November 1864, typescript, Brigham Young collection, drawn from their 1867 letters to Brigham Young, op cit. 346–348; George A. Smith to William W. Cluff, 27 January 1864, Historian’s 104. Joseph F. Smith to Levira Annette Smith, 21 June and 18 July 1867. Office Letterpress Copy Books, LDS Church Archives, CR 100 / 38. 105. Joseph and Levira signed the form for non-contested divorces on 10 June 82. Deseret News, 1 June 1864. 1867. Levira initiated the California divorce in 1868 after establishing the requisite 83. “Blessing upon the head of Levira Smith, previous to starting for the six months’ residency. Joseph apparently did not comply with the California sum- Sandwich Islands given by Presidents Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, in G. mons, and the divorce was finalized 10 July 1869. The Utah form did not use the S. L. City, Aug. 4, 1864.” On Thursday, 6 August 1864, J. C. Rich wrote Joseph word divorce: “Know all men by these Presents:—That we the undersigned . . . do that Levira planned to leave Salt Lake with Dorinda “next Tuesday,” which would hereby mutually covenant, promise, and agree to dissolve all the relations which have been 9 August. “I am in a sort of quadery,” Joseph wrote Levira’s half-brother have hitherto existed between us as husband and wife; and to keep ourselves sepa- in mid-September, that he still did not know whether Levira was in San Francisco rate and apart from each other, from this time forth.” For a discussion of divorces or not. Joseph F. Smith to Samuel H.B. Smith, 14 September 1864, Samuel H. B. in the Brigham Young period, see Firmage and Mangrum, 322–26. Smith papers. 106. Joseph Fielding Smith, added that the divorce was due to “interference 84. Joseph F. Smith diary, 5 November 1864. on the part of relatives,” and his father’s “continued absence . . . in mission fields 85. Joseph F. Smith to Levira Annette Smith, 14 March 1865. and in ecclesiastical duties.” Joseph Fielding Smith, Life of Joseph F. Smith, 230–31. 86. Joseph F. Smith to Levira Annette Smith, 14 March 1865. 107. Fredrick Beesley journal, 11 April 1886. LDS Church Archives, F 408 #3. 87. Agnes Moulton Coolbrith was the widow of Don Carlos Smith (Joseph and 108. Joseph Smith III to Levira Annette Smith, 3 February 1880, Joseph Smith Hyrum’s brother), who died 7 August 1841. Their daughter Josephine Donna was III Letterbook vol 2, 486, RLDS Church Library-Archives. Notes courtesy of Buddy Joseph’s favorite childhood cousin. Joseph F. Smith to to Lucy W. Kimball, 6 March Youngreen. 1884. After Agness married William Pickett and moved to California, Josephine 109 Joseph F. Smith to Julina Lambson Smith, 21 January 1875. took the name Ina Coolbrith to disassociate herself from Mormonism. Though 110. Joseph F. Smith diary, 7 July 1875. they held divergent views of the Church, Joseph and Ina remained good friends, 111. Mary Ann was Joseph Fielding’s daughter by his second wife and was sometimes corresponding five or six times a year until his death. A gifted poet and McKnight’s fourth wife. Mary Ann McKnight to Joseph F. Smith, 9 June and Oakland city librarian, Ina was named California Poet Laureate in 1919. Josephine August 1875; Joseph F. Smith diary, 31 December 1873; Mercy R. Thompson to DeWitt Rhodehamel and Raymund Francis Wood, Ina Coolbrith: Librarian and Joseph F. Smith, 14 May 1875. When Joseph’s barn burned to the ground in 1875, Laureate of California (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1973), 317. it was widely believed that McKnight was responsible. L. John Nuttall to Joseph F. Unfortunately, Ina’s biographers do not appear to have known of her relationship Smith, 21 June 1875. After the fire, Julina informed Mary Ann that Joseph had with Joseph. come to regret his earlier advice that she stay with McKnight. Julina Lambson 88. Levira Annette Smith to Joseph F. Smith 8, 21, 25 December 1864; 2, 6, Smith to Joseph F. Smith, 6 June 1875. 19, 21 January, 13, 19 March, 7, 10, 14, 23, 29 April 1865, and an undated letter 112. Joseph F. Smith diary, 1, 7 January 1873. beginning, “I did not get this done in time to go last night.” 113. Salt Lake Tribune, 3 May 1873. 89. Historian’s Office Journal, 22 January 1865. LDS Church Archives, CR 100 114. James McKnight to Joseph F. Smith, 25 January 1874. / 1. 115. Julina understood that Joseph’s anger stemmed from childhood. In 1875, 90. Ina Coolbrith to Joseph F. Smith, 3 January, 21 June 1865. Maureen when Brigham Young was briefly jailed for polygamy, she wrote to Joseph in Ursenbach Beecher generously shared Ina’s letters to Joseph F. Smith with me in England, “I have felt thankful lately that you were in England. If you had been the 1970s, before they became part of the Joseph F. Smith papers. here the night the President was sent to prison I think it would have riled that 91. Levira Annette Smith to Joseph F. Smith, 24 January, 7 April 1865. feeling you had born in you.” Julina Lambson Smith to Joseph F. Smith, 14 March 92. Levira Annette Smith to Joseph F. Smith, 10, 16 April 1865, and an un- 1875. dated letter to Brigham Young. Learning Joseph might be captain of a company crossing the plains in 1863, a 93. Historian’s Office Journal, 22 January 1865 and following entries. British Saint wrote to him: “If such is true, I shall pray for your poor temper, and not 94. Levira Annette Smith to Joseph F. Smith, 16 June 1865. your ‘poor feet.’ Now pray do forgive me saying so. It was yourself who first told 95. Levira Annette Smith to Joseph F. Smith, 20 November 1865. me about your short temper.” M. A. Cook to Joseph F. Smith, 9 May 1863. 96. Joseph F. Smith to Brigham Young, n.d. 116. Joseph F. Smith to Julina Lambson Smith, 21 January 1875. 97. Erastus Snow “was one of the most persistent and strenuous advocates of 117. Joseph F. Smith to Edna Lambson Smith, 21 January 1875. the doctrine to me personally in the days of my youth, and by whose urgent ap- 118. Joseph F. Smith to Alvin F. Smith, 8 June 1905. peals I entered into its practice much sooner than I otherwise would; and to whom 119. Charles C. Goodwin (Goodwin’s Weekly, 8 April 1916), cited in HC I owe directly my good fortune of marrying, when I did, my wife Julina.” Joseph F. 6:477–78. Goodwin was editor of the Salt Lake Tribune from 1883–1903. Smith to Susa Young Gates, 1 August 1889. 98. Leonard J. Arrington and Susan Arrington Madsen, Mothers of the Prophets To comment on this essay, or to read comments by others, visit our (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1987): 152–153, 157. website:
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CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS OF THE 2001 BROOKIE & D. K. BROWN FICTION CONTEST! Sunstone Awards: $350 each “Rosemary’s Grandaughter,” by Cass McNally “The Apostle’s Daughter,” by Dian Saderup Monson Moonstone Award: $200 “Rock, Squeak, Wheeze,” by David M. Clark Starstone Award: $100 “Desperation,” by Ethan Skarstedt Look for these stories in future issues of SUNSTONE
Steven Fales will present his one-man play Confessions of a Mormon Boy
November 28, 29, 30 December 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9
Rose Wagner Center, Salt Lake City Tickets available through ArtTix
This is the play Steven previewed at the 2001 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium!
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